Life At It's Best: Rely on God's love as your father

Feb. 3, 2011 at midnightUpdated Feb. 3, 2011 at 8:04 p.m.

Jim Graff

By Jim Graff

Do you remember holding your child for the first time? If you're like me, you experienced an incomparable feeling of love you likely had never experienced before. But pretty soon, that baby opened his eyes, and you could almost read his mind thinking, "Who's this crazy person staring at me?" It didn't take long for him to find out who you were. And as he became aware of your love for him, he learned to rely on it for his daily needs.

\That's exactly our relationship with our heavenly father. When he looks at us, he sees something special - not the problems we struggle with, but the preciousness on the inside of us. And as we start to trust in his love to care for our own greatest needs, he promises to release that preciousness within us.

I have a good friend named Bill Wilson who lives in New York City. One day as a child, his mother took him to the park, instructing him to sit on a bench and wait for her until she returned. Well, Bill waited - for three days. She never came back. On the third day, a man visited the park who had just lost his own son. He talked to Bill, learned his story and decided to take him in as his own.

Today, Bill is the perfect picture of what can happen when someone is loved and taught to recognize his worth to God's Kingdom. He's a pastor of 8,000, but his congregation is different from most. It's filled with kids who, like Bill, were abandoned and neglected. They're in desperate need of someone who, like Bill's father, will recognize the preciousness in them and work to unleash it in their lives.

See, God doesn't require perfection from us. His goal is not to condemn us, but to have compassion on us and construct us for an amazing life. He wants to cover our frustrations with faith, resource our lack with his abundance and care for us as his children. How many people give up on their marriage while God has the resources to bless it? How many people give up on their dreams, while God has the answer to making that dream come to pass?

If we want to see these blessings come into our lives, we must live with not just an awareness of God's love, but reliance upon it that allows him to bring out the preciousness in our lives. Soon, a passion will be stirred up in us that inspires us to do the same for others.

I encourage you to rely on God's love as your father, and allow Him to construct you for an incredible life. Then strive to release that preciousness in the lives of others by showing them the same kind of love. Together, let's decide that sin won't win in our lives.

Jim Graff is the Senior Pastor of Faith Family Church in Victoria, Texas. www.faithfamilyvictoria.com.